Unintended

50

"There's the launch tower. That plain offers little cover, so the only viable path is through there. There will be Spectres guarding it and many more can be deployed from those hangers." Once the shock and awe of the base had subsided, Tilda stood and directed everyone's direction to the two places she had gestured to. The launch tower was still an imposing shard of glass, so close yet so far to them still and the open grounds which Tilda also mentioned were just that, there was no signs of real cover. The structures which were built there by the Zeniths wouldn't provide much cover, just because of the spherical nature of them.

"All right. Alva, Kotallo, get to it." Aloy had silently been taking onboard just what Tilda had said. Her two friends stood behind the white clad Zenith, both were evidently waiting for their moment to depart from the rest and go do the mission Aloy had set out for them.

"Where are they going?" Tilda asked, a hint of scepticism in her voice as she briefly glanced their way. It seemed Tilda was inclined to believe they were all sticking it out together, the sound of distrust in her voice wasn't missed at all even as their two allies briefly bowed their heads at the rest of their friends and went.

"Somewhere important," was all Aloy gave as a response to Tilda. It wasn't like the rest of them knew the task which had been set out for the pair, but unlike Tilda and to a point Sylens, no one wished or needed to question it. "Erend, you're with me. You guys, take the high ground in case we need covering fire." Erend stepped to stand beside Aloy and clapped a hand quickly against Nureka's shoulder as she passed. She was sticking with Zo, like she had said.

There were three variables in this group that could make this still end in failure. Tilda was evidently still keeping things to herself, so was still trusted as much as anyone could throw her. Sylens was never trusted in the first place and seemed content to sacrifice the Tenakth for his end goal. So, him being caught out and roped in meant that he was no doubt looking for a loophole somewhere to bend this to his liking. Regalla was a live wire for sure, unpredictable to a point but evidently the chance of a warrior's death kept her in line, because what else had she got now? As absolutely devastating as that was, being spared twice had left her even more bitter and twisted. By far she was perhaps the one who could actually shockingly be trusted to stick to a plan.

"Tactically sound, I suppose. What will she do?" Sylens and Tilda, along with Erend and Aloy were the only people still remaining on the outcrop. It was no surprise to either Erend or Aloy that Sylens was wishing to know just what their resident Zenith was going to do.

"There's a sensor node nearby if I hack into it, I should be able to scramble the network and keep you undetected, but it won't be for long." Tilda didn't even reply to Sylens's question with the same level of sarcasm and dislike. She just simply explained her intentions.

"Then we should proceed." That was Sylens's last shared words before walking away from both females.

"One more thing, open up the channel to Beta, audio only." Aloy watched as Tilda lifted up a hand and closed it slowly. "Listen, we're here and we're coming for you. Do you remember what to do?" Aloy asked the moment she heard Beta's tired and strained voice reply to her.

"As long as you hold up your end." Beta answered quietly, with a nod from Aloy, Tilda shut off the communications and that was it. Those that remained all parted ways, Erend following Aloy down the outcrop and landing in a rocky terrain full of fallen machines, red grass and Spectres. They appeared slinking and moving like liquid metal as they hunted out the pair.

Tilda wasn't joking when she said that there would be a good number of Spectres around. Aloy and Erend managed to fight or sneak their way around some, the trio of females didn't have so much luck. As is, the climb to get to the high ground was treacherous. Nureka was used to climbing but the rock was so sheer in places that it cut into her fingers. Zo and Regalla struggled to find footfalls too, so it wasn't just her. After climbing around and up, they managed to get above the area where Aloy and Erend roughly were. They could hear sounds of fighting, the clanking and ringing of metal echoed and ricocheted off of the stone walls around them. But they weren't within sight, there wasn't much any of them could do for cover fire, when their friends weren't within sight.